Compiled Notes
'Man's Memory of Origin' Man cannot remember why he came forth or where he came forth from, only because he sinned, voluntarily by placing self over selflessness. 'Magic Working' If I just sit and meditate, I will eventually come into astral projection, remaining awake as I enter the lands of the dream. Practice will be the only way forward. Crystal gazing is used for the development of astral sight. The elemental grades are for the acquisition of awareness upon the etheric, astral, sensitive and desire body levels. The student's awareness of a higher body makes it primed for use in magic. The awareness is awakened by invocation of the appropriate element, then the Middle Pillar Ritual. In addition to this, the Body in X exercise is used to extend the Middle Pillar, hastening the integration and awareness of polarity in these bodies. Once awareness in the solar body is found, the four lower elemental bodies can be used to perform all kinds of ritual magic. *'Evocation - '''Ceremonies, invocations, evocations, astral projection, spirit pacts and enchantments, control over the elements *'Divination - Foretelling, meditations, self-mastery, scrying, bilocation, teleportation, telekinesis *'Sovereignty - '''Mindsight, social supremacy, telepathy, mind control, mind reading *'Witchcraft - 'Charms and talismans, natural apothecary, animalism, curses, hexes, blessings, human influence *'Consecration - 'Protections, guards and wards, sancitification, dedication, celebration, preservation, defence *'Necromancy - 'Mediumship, death magic, the dead, reanimation, resurrection, fetishism, the soul *'Alchemy - 'Transformation of self, enlightenment and corruption, transmutation, potion crafting, science 'On Enlightenment Enlightenment is the process of virtuous acquisition, and so anyone can self-illuminate through pursuit of the good (this is the only way that true enlightenment is attained - it is not only awareness of the workings of the higher bodies in man, but also their complete depolarisation, or suspension of motion. There is no system of magic or occult pursuit, no specific meditation or "awakening practice" that will successfully be substituted for the betterment of self. The illuminated adept is the rightful ruler over all spirits within the astral plane who possess an alignment lower than his own, and is beyond their wrongful or malicious predations. The magician who has gained magical skill without proceeding in the great work will be at the mercy of spirits he attempts to presumptuously command when he has not earned this right through adeptship. The truly illuminated one will not be subject to accidents, sickness or other misfortunes when trafficking with astral entities, for he has mastered the domains of the lower mind and the four elemental planes which govern them. A human of the second Initiation may upon death become re-embodied as an angel upon the semi-material astral plane, because he is fully conscious with suspension of motion upon this plane or principle within himself. Upon achieving the fifth Initiation he may forgo embodiment as we know it, declining either human or celestial form, and instead becoming a god upon the numenal plane, upon which he also now has suspension of motion and full consciousness. At the attainment of the Ipsissimus, the human may forsake all embodiment and re-identify with Deity itself, unlimited possibility once more theirs. A celestial of the choir of the melekim may upon death become a god also, forgoing future embodiment in the celestial kingdom. The chayoth ha-qadesh may re-identify with Deity upon death as the Ipsissimus may. 'On the Elemental Planes' The elemental planes of earth, water, air and fire are the realms within the physical world which define the properties of solids, liquids, gases and ether, respectively. They are vital in the building of the bodies of minerals, plants, animals and man himself. 'On Higher Beings' Higher planar beings may choose to manifest bodies upon the lower planes - celestials in the material plane, gods in both the astral and material planes, etc. However, they prefer not to do so for fear of interfering with the lower kingdoms' evolutionary courses, which are their own. The exception to this rule is the infernal spirit, which dwelling upon the astral plane has become immersed in the affairs of material creatures and corrupted its own nature. Hierarchs and infernals are celestials of varying origin - some originated as their current life-form, others are redeemed creatures of the lower kingdoms, having once been incarnated as minerals, plants, animals, humanoids and now their current non-material forms. Celestials have their "feet" in the material plane, and as such their works manifest as physical phenomena in the world of man. They are often dubbed the messengers and servitors of the gods, still higher beings. A hierarch is a member of the celestial kingdom which possesses a positive moral nature, while an infernal is a celestial entity possessing a negative moral nature. Each level of existence within the astral plane contains three orders of being, each representing a creating, preserving and destructive power operating there. Just as the Ipsissimus rules over the material world of man, the chayoth ha-qadesh rule over the astral world. The Ipsissimus sees his will executed by the lower classes of initiates, and the celestial being sees its own will trickle down through the lower choirs into manifestation upon the material plane. Gods dwell within the numen, with their bodies being within the astral plane much as man, dwelling in the astral plane, possesses his body in the physical plane. They were once members of a different line of humanoid life quite distinct from our own (although some were once men such as ourselves), and are great in their level of power. Most are beyond pettiness or evil motive, and are benevolent, although certain illuminated persons may well exceed them in virtuous character. Archangels and Demon Kings (gods of light and darkness) are beings of tremendous power whose feet are rested in the astral plane. Their consciousness is evolved to occupy the numenal plane. Because of the state of pervasive bliss found upon this plane, most all gods are benign in quality. However, not even these mighty beings are immune from conscious transgression and entanglement. As such, the so-called Demon Kings do indeed exist and propagate corruption even as the archangels shed their light. It is not clear from where the gods first emerged; most were likely once astral spirits or humanoids which ascended long ago. Primordials, known as the Lords of Karma, dwell within the plane of divinity, and their bodies comprise the great planes which define all else in existence - the plane of creation, the plane of forms and the plane of manifestation. They oversee the allocation of karma through all lower kingdoms, including the gods and celestials, all within the lowers solar system. These magnificent beings are known also as the Lords of Polarity or the Lords of Dualism. 'On Elementals' Elementals make up the essence and substance of all material existence - the bodies of minerals, plants, animals, man and spirits. They are not individual entities in their basest form, but rather beings which arise in response to the action of impulse upon a raw substance known as the elemental chaos, the potential from which all worlds arise and come into populated manifestation. Elementals do not evolve, they rather involve. All astral inhabitants are truly living creatures, including the so-called artificial beings created by man. Once created, these beings, usually called elementaries, possess a sentience of their own, and their own natural lifespans and karma. 'On Fey Beings, or Faeries' Nature spirits, or fey, are the animals of another line of evolution, semi-intelligent and without an individual, reincarnating ego-self. Unlike the animals inferior to man, these beings will not evolve into a humanity as we know it, and will possess entirely different biology and powers when they achieve sapience. Fey occupy the same planet as man, but are mainly at the present time concerned with presiding over and evolving the four lower kingdoms of life. There are four broadly recognised groups of fey, called gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. These groups are respectively overseers of a sort in the evolution of the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms, and as such are closely tied to the elementals of earth, water, air and fire. One should not confuse the faerie with the elemental proper, however, as they are far more advanced beings. 'On the Existence of Monsters' Monsters are soulless beings which dwell upon the low astral plane and are subject to slow and painful destruction within the ninth sphere. For this reason, the monster may, in the absence of victims to possess, attempt to manifest a material body in order to escape its fate through the attenuation of its desires through matter. The fact that this manifestation actually makes their suffering worse due to inevitable physical destruction means nothing to the literally mindless being, which has already lost its connection to consciousness and is only a husk, blindly pursuing irrational impulses towards its own oblivion. Most monsters are the shells of dead humans who lost their souls during life, which began to decay after the decomposition of their deceased physical bodies. Possessed by aberrant desires of the worst sort and trapped upon the astral plane, the monster reflexively tries to survive by draining the mental, emotional and vital life-force of living creatures in a fashion dependent upon the person's tendencies during life. The appearances of these beings, althought recognisably humanoid, are often distorted within the astral plane and also due to the decay of their material corpses. Types of Monster: 'Fiends, reavers, manias, ghouls, bodaks, spectres, liches, plagues, aberrations, succubi, wraiths, vampires, mimics, maras, beasts, furies, goliaths, wisps, savages, zombies, werewolves. Three of the above types, the lich, the mara and the werewolf, are special types of monster which a person produces from oneself during one's life, usually as a means of venting their frustrations upon those they erroneously blame for their dire situations. 'On Lodestones This form of magnetite is a naturally-occuring magnet and therefore possesses a strong and persistent alectromagnetic field. Since electromagnetic force is the fabric of the creative plane and flows through the electromagnetic field of the Earth and of man himself, the use of lodestones can lend to the strength of a number of magical works. The addition of a powerful electromagnetic field to the magician's own allows for greater creative force to be drawn upon for a manifestation. This causal energy is to be channelled through the astral plane through impulse and thought-form, as is usual in magical practice. 'On the Fall of Man' Lemurian (animal) man eventually disappeared when truly individualised man emerged in the Atlantean, who was the first divine man and a true moral agent. Atlantean man was created greater than the angels, greater even than the gods in their current state of condition. He is inferior now only because of his conscious descent into an animal existence. The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms possess no individuated consciousness, and are therefore not capable of self-willed moral or immoral action. Man, the celestials and the gods do possess such individuality, and as such are all moral agents. This means that these higher three kingdoms are capable of wilful and conscious entanglement in materiality, a "fall" of sorts. Man is the most susceptible to this fall, the celestials less so and the gods almost immune. It must be noted, however, that man, celestial and god each find it within their power to consign themselves to the eighth sphere, and perhaps ultimately to Avici should they transgress inner law to a great enough degree. Before the fall, gods, celestials and Atlantean man kept their laws and had no knowledge of good and evil, only of reality. Once the fall occurred, gods, celestials and man to varying degrees had their consciousness immerse itself in matter. Owing to their differing composition and degrees of grossness of embodiment, man fell the furthest and the gods the least. In this we are considering kingdoms as a whole, not individual conscious beings - there are men who transcend many gods in their virtues. All beings and organisms possessed of individual consciousness and free will enter embodiment in a divine state, without any entanglement in negative karma. The majority of these beings choose to keep their law and fulfil their purpose, transcending existence. The minority choose to various degrees to compromise their law in full consciousness of the negative karma this transgression will engender. These beings will then be left behind in the now "fallen" world to resolve their own karma in their own times. The world in which man now resides along with the various other visible and invisible organisms is in its fallen state, and he, the angels and the gods alike are now seeking the way back to the light of full consciousness, the cessation of self-caused suffering and the fulfilment of purpose's unfoldment. The time when divine men walked the Earth has long ago passed. The reason that the vast majority of modern men (and men of modern history) are of neutral, ambivalent alignment is that the majority of his kingdom completed its purpose in the past and returned to divinity, leaving him behind to walk his own path. The more fully conscious men of our time still on the whole outnumber the neurotic and the wicked, however, despite having re-awakened from the karmic dream-state of the world illusion. All worlds will return to the essence, because each individual consciousness, archetypal or individuated in self, will not break its own laws, delay or abandon its purpose entirely. All purposes will be fulfilled in their own time, and when all is realised, existence ceases. It is not man's existence within a karmically-ruled material reality which necessitates his suffering. It is his immersion of his own consciousness and the concomitant polarisation of his higher body principles. What is frequently termed the enlightenment of man is very commonly mis-termed evolution by theosophists and other spiritual scholars - it is not, in fact this (except in the essential view that all process of any kind within existence is evolutionary), but rather the removal of self-sabotage through entanglement which, once completed by degree, allows evolution to unfold more naturally. The Mystery School is an academy of man's spiritual redemption, an alchemy of human regeneration. Three Vital Principles 1) All beings with individuated consciousness, including man, possess transcendent free will, and are therefore moral agents responsible for their own selves. 2) The experience of "evil" is self-contained and has no essential nature in reality - it is simply the least degree of good. All adverse experiences, despite appearances, are due to faults and wrongs within oneself. 3) Suffering is possible, but self-caused and therefore unnecessary. To resolve and cease the experience of suffering, one must depolarise one's own addictive and negative karma, and in doing so restore contact with positivity.